This story is part of our March 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here.
Dr. Jennifer Nuovo
Chief Medical Officer, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan
Long before Dr. Jennifer Nuovo went into the medical field, she learned what care looked like growing up on a dairy farm in upstate New York. As a child frequently sidelined by chronic illness, one particular person in her life became a hero. “I just loved my doctor,” she recalls. “He kind of saved my life over and over, is what it felt like. I think that’s what got me interested in going into medicine.”
Nuovo’s 40-year career has led her from private practice to leadership roles at major health organizations around the state. As chief medical officer of Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan, she supports the health and wellness of about 560,000 Medi-Cal members across Los Angeles and San Diego counties. “I love it. It’s a challenge every day,” she says. “There’s always something going on.”
No stranger to taking on challenges, Nuovo attended the University of Vermont College of Medicine (now the Larner College of Medicine) in the late 1970s, part of a growing number of women walking the halls of the nation’s medical schools. The year before she started, there had only been a few women in the freshman class, she says. “My year, I think we were 25 percent.”
“In the era I grew up in, men were doctors and women were nurses,” she explains. “So that script really flipped.”
The transition was far from seamless. “It was awkward. Things like changing rooms, call rooms, where you sleep at night in a hospital,” she says. “There were no spaces for privacy. You were basically on your own.”
“Use your voice. Learn to advocate for yourself, because no one else will do it for you.”
Some instructors weren’t so receptive to the change. A teacher once told her, “You are the dumbest medical student I’ve ever encountered.” She was stunned. “I thought, should I just walk out?” she says. “Should I leave? We didn’t know the word gaslighting back then.”
But those experiences reinforced her advice for young women today: Self-advocacy matters. “Use your voice,” she says. “Learn to advocate for yourself, because no one else will do it for you.”
After medical school, she and her husband joined the Army to complete their medical training at Fort Lewis, Washington. He trained in family practice; she chose internal medicine. After a brief time in Washington, D.C., she spent 12 years in private practice at Mercy Medical Clinic in Sacramento before transitioning to the insurance side of the industry.
“I felt like I was making a difference for people individually,” she says. “But I wanted to have a broader influence and a focus on public health.”
Focusing on Medi-Cal, Nuovo served as medical director for Health Net, then chief medical officer for the Medi-Cal plans at Sutter Health and UnitedHealthcare. In 2023, she joined Blue Shield of California.
Passionate about environmental advocacy, Nuovo has also found ways to channel that into her work. “We work closely with our Green Advisory Board to help keep members safe and informed during extreme weather events,” she says. During the Los Angeles wildfires, their team used data to identify at‑risk members in affected ZIP codes to help get them to safety, secure medications and connect them with services.
Looking ahead to this year, she is excited about building out programs for infants, pregnant and postpartum members, as well as supporting older adults at risk of hospitalization. “That’s the work that really makes my soul warm,” she says. “Just knowing you’re able to make such a huge difference.”
That sense of caregiving extends to her home life. Nuovo lives on 5 acres in Yolo County, where she and her husband tend to nearly 100 olive trees and a winter garden that is currently in full swing. “I grow every variety of tomato that there probably is in the country,” she says.
She’s also cared for a succession of rescue dogs over the years — beagles, pit bulls and retrievers — along with horses and a host of well-fed barn cats that currently roam the property. A German shepherd named Zoe is a constant presence at her side.
“I’ve been blessed,” she says. “Truly blessed to go from being a very rural kid on a farm who’d never been to a city or on an airplane to this career. So many people have helped me and supported me along the way.”
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